Relationships of Students’ Mental Well-being with Mothers’ Emotional Breakdown and Marital Justice Mediated by Mothers’ Marital Intimacy

Students’ mental well-being can be influenced by various maternal characteristics due to their close relationships with their mothers. These factors have an impact on their overall mental health. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between students’ mental well-being, mothers’ emotional breakdown, and marital justice, with the mediating role of mothers’ marital intimacy in Ahvaz, Iran. The statistical population of this descriptive-correlational study included all female and male senior high school students in Ahvaz, Iran, and their mothers during the 2022–23 academic year. A stratified cluster sampling method was employed, and 300 students and their mothers were selected as the research sample. The research utilized several tools, including the Psychological Well-being Scale, the Love Trauma Inventory, the Marital Justice Scale, and the Marital Intimacy Questionnaire. Path analysis was conducted using SPSS version 27 and AMOS version 25 to evaluate the proposed model. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of students’ mental well-being, mothers’ emotional breakdown, mothers’ marital justice, and mothers’ marital intimacy were as follows: 59.69 (12.94), 19.29 (5.11), 59.36 (8.87), and 67.99 (12.34), respectively. The findings indicated that all direct paths to students’ mental well-being were significant (P<0.001), except for the marital justice of mothers. Furthermore, mothers’ marital intimacy significantly mediated the indirect path between mothers’ emotional breakdown and students’ mental well-being (P<0.001). Similarly, the relationship between mothers’ marital justice and students’ mental well-being was significantly mediated by mothers’ marital intimacy (P<0.001). The study revealed a direct positive relationship between mothers’ marital intimacy and students’ mental well-being. Therefore, it is expected that enhancing mothers’ marital intimacy will have a positive impact on students’ mental well-being. To achieve this, training workshops should be conducted to improve marital justice between spouses, thereby enhancing mothers’ marital intimacy and boosting students’ mental well-being.